Interview: The Early November's Ace Enders on the band's reunion, new album and label

THE EARLY NOVEMBER is just getting started again. With sold out reunion shows and plans to release a new album on Rise Records this spring, things are busier and better than ever for frontman ACE ENDERS. It wouldn’t be so sweet without some struggle, as Enders explains in this exclusive interview.

Interview: Brian Kraus

Almost exactly a year ago while you were working on your latest solo effort Gold Rush, you kind of shocked people when you made it known that things just weren’t going your way, and even more so when you said you weren’t sure if you could sustain being a musician and releasing new music. You spoke about running out of time and money, kids not coming out to shows as much and downloads hurting physical sales. So now that you can reflect back on that period of your life, how are you feeling about things?
I think right now’s one of those times where I’m extremely excited. I’m really happy to be in the position where we’re at right now. I feel completely different than I did in that moment, because in that moment there was nothing to look forward to, it was only struggle, it was only things falling through and now it’s completely the opposite. It’s hope now. You know you can look at things and say “at least it feels good right now.” I think maybe that won’t last forever, but it definitely feels good for right now.

Let’s talk about TEN’s signing process with Rise Records. They've been working hard to represent their roster with more rock bands like Hot Water Music, Daytrader, Cheap Girls and Make Do And Mend.
Well, I’ve known Matt (Gordner, general manager) for a long time. He works over there at Rise. We talked about working together when he worked at Icon years ago.  This was just a long process and unfortunately we weren’t able to back then. We’ve kept in touch a little bit. I brought up the idea to him, I guess a little while ago, and he was just really into it and I was really into it. He’s such a great guy, I feel like we’re in really good hands because he’s such a genuine person and I feel like that translates in the business they do as well, how he conducts himself. I’m really excited because it’s working with friends pretty much.
 

What attracted TEN to Rise? With every similar signing there are comments like “Why are they doing that?”
Right. Yeah, I know what you’re saying. I think for us it goes back just to the relationship that I’ve had with Matt for such a long time and how good, not just of a business person he is, but how good of a friend he is, and I know that he would treat us the right way. And I think that’s just where all our heads were at in a place where we have a personal connection with this person and we know that our best interests are genuinely going to be at the front of the thought process at all times.
 

Some people can’t really fathom a band they like being on a label with bands they don’t like.
Yeah, it’s funny when people do that. I used to be the same way, but now that I’ve been on this side of it for such a long time you want to be somewhere where you can trust the person that you’re with and that you know that they’re always going to be thinking along the same mindset that you’re at. That’s the most important thing. Not how well you fit, because you’re not looking to just tour with the bands on the label, you know, you’re not really looking to do much at all with the bands on the label, you’re looking to further your career and wherever you can do that best no matter what label it is or who else is on the brand. It’s just about how it works for you. It’s hard as a fan to detach yourself from all that stuff, cause that’s the fun of liking music. I totally get it.

When the band parted ways after The Mother, The Mechanic, And The Path, it was well-publicized that Drive-Thru had delayed the release process. What wisdom did you guys take away from that in terms of going with Rise, and just in general to get a fresh start?
We learned a whole lot from that experience and I don’t think just on Drive-Thru’s part of it, I mean they did do a good job of everything and I think that it maybe got blown up a little bit that the release was, I mean it was pushed back several times, but that wasn’t all their fault.  It was also on our shoulders as well. I think a big thing of learning at that point was I really wanted to do something where I’d be able to prove to myself that I was worth being able to call this my career. And I think that was one of the times for me at that age being like “How come I get to do this and so many people try and can’t do it?” It’s sort of like I put a ton of pressure on myself and everybody in the band did at that point, and it was just a confusing time. I think the biggest thing we take away from it is to just know ourselves. You know, know what you are in and out and I think that’s another reason we went with Rise. We could have chosen somewhere else or another way to do it, but it’s like we know what we do best, and we know what they do, and they are good at what they do. I think the one thing we took away from is the just that—knowing who we really are and how to make sense of all the weird things that come up.

Running with that self-awareness you discovered, let’s talk about your decision to self-record and produce the new album at your studio. Has that been complementing the writing process?
Yeah, I have a bunch of songs. I have a lot of stuff written for this album and a lot of stuff that I’ve been figuring out for years. I would say in the back of my mind, “If the band is ever getting back together, this is how I’d like to do it.” So I have a lot sitting there, a lot that I’ve been preparing for long before it was ever even a thought. I really want to do the album just because it’s so important to me to come back from this hiatus with 110%, just like not skipping a beat and really showing the growth that we’ve all taken individually and as a band. I feel like I can do a good job of it. I’m really excited to just be buried in it, and I think that’s the way I work best and I’ve definitely learned that about myself too. My best environment is when I am…when I can’t get out of the environment. And when I’m doing the record if I have all that on me then I can’t you know, I can’t take a break and go play video games in the longue and get disconnected. I can’t go say “Oh, I’m gonna talk a walk, I’ll see you guys in a little bit.” Sometimes that’s good, but I know for me, that’s the stuff that distracts me and I’ve had terrible ADHD my entire life so if I’m not buried in something, I’m not 100%. I’m very excited to just be completely soaked in all of it. (continued on page 2…)

You guys were very cautious with the initial reunion shows to call them just that, reunion shows, as to not get everyone's hopes up with The Early November actually being a band again. At that point, were you gauging the possibilities of a reunion?
We were talking about it. When the idea first came up to do the shows, it was just to do the shows. It was just like, “Let’s have a good time, let’s just hang out and see what happens.”  And that’s where we left it for a while. Sometime after the first show we were like, “Okay, I can see getting serious with this a little bit” and then we decided to take the steps after that. Yeah, but it really did just start at that.

After TEN decided to reunite, you still all had your pre-existing responsibilities, new ones thrown into the mix like families, not to mention the addition of a fifth member (guitarist Bill Lugg). With all of that considered, how do you begin to make plans for TEN from a scheduling standpoint?
It’s a little bit more complicated obviously now that everybody’s got a bunch going on, but I think we’ve been handling it fairly well. Anything that comes up, anything that we’re sort of debating on doing in the future, we make sure that everybody’s all cool with it. We plan out more than we ever did. And I think that was one of our problems before. We just went with everything. And now we’re forced to just really plan out what we’re doing and that’s almost comforting in a way. It feels a little bit more secure in an odd way. We know we’re not just going to get a call and be like, “All right, we’re goin’” and take a risk. We know we’re going to make smart decisions and that’s definitely what helped us all come to this decision to do this.

You’re just going about it in a more formal manner now.
Yeah.

What can we expect the new material to sound like? It's tough to assume any one direction taking into account the band's most recent three-disc album (The Mother, The Mechanic, And The Path), but also the years of hiatus. Tell us, is it a rock record? Softer record? A little bit of both?
I think it’s going to be what you would expect to hear [Laughs]. I mean I don’t know exactly what people would expect to hear just because it has been such a variety, but it definitely has the energy that we’ve always had. If anything, it’s just a little bit more focused in the sense of that we’re all playing together now. I think we just know a little bit more about music and everything like that. It still has that tense energetic [feel] and is also soft at times…it’s hard to explain, but I think it picks off right where we should.  So I guess only time will tell.

A new album is obviously a huge supply for the demands of fans, but you have to think it will just create even more “come play my city” sentiments. Will you be touring on it?
That’s still, you know, something we’re talking about. I know we’re definitely talking about doing some touring, so I think we’ll definitely be around most places and we’ll see how that goes.

How did all of you keep the reunion and album news from getting to the public prematurely? Nothing had leaked online besides a vague Wikipedia rumor that you guys were writing again at your studio.
I think since we’re all so for lack of a better term, lame, and we just sort of either go to work and then go home every single day. We don’t spend too much time hanging out or talking to people, that’s sort of why we’re able to keep it such a secret. I know on my end anyway I’m able to just work in the studio, then I go home and I hang out with my wife and family. I think that’s sort of what everybody else does too…and that’s safe you know?

The Starting Line, Hot Rod Circuit, Senses Fail, New Found Glory, the Promise Ring and Fairweather have all been active this year in some degree. There also is a resurgence of the New Jersey/Pennsylvania pop-punk sound and spirit that TEN was partly responsible for spawning when you look at younger bands like Balance And Composure, Young Statues, Man Overboard, Tigers Jaw and Into It. Over It. What’s your take on all that? Is it almost like déjà vu to be reunited not only with TEN, but all these bands from your past? Did any reunions spark an interest in that of your own like “Hey, our friends are playing again, maybe we should too?”
Yeah. I think it all definitely works hand in hand with us deciding to do it. I almost think if we had done it any earlier, not that we felt like we weren’t ready, it’s just we made the decision to go on hiatus and it’s not something that we could take lightly. It’s not something that we wanted to be like “Oh, we can go right back into it,” because obviously after that last show all of us to an extent wanted to be like “All right, let’s just keep going,” but we couldn’t do that. It just wouldn’t be right. And we could’ve done it a year later or two years later but then it’s like…it wouldn’t have been even worth it at all. We wouldn’t have learned anything from it or in terms of our fans and what not—we definitely want to feel like we’re not going to be all back and forth with people all the time. I think if we would have gotten back together any sooner, we would have probably went back on hiatus as well.  But I think we’re all just at such a different place, a unique place right now.

Personally, I just think that it makes so much sense. As far as like the rest of the bands getting back together it shows us…it brought back feelings, if anything. You think about times that you spent with these people and it sort of plants the seed and it gets the wheels turning a little bit. Seeing all the bands that are around now and the scene from south Jersey and Pennsylvania and all those places, it’s cool, it’s really cool to see the regrowth of what was so strong several years ago, and then it died out. It’s great to see that. I’ve definitely been missing it for a long time. That sort of camaraderie had went away for a little bit, now it’s really cool to see that come back.

It’s like a cycle.
Yeah. It is. It’s cool to see that come back around.

How much was TEN still a part of your everyday life or even your subconscious in the time off, given it was really all you knew for many years?
I’ve done a bunch of touring since then and I mean there’s not a night that goes by that someone doesn’t say something to me about it. It’s constant. Yeah, I mean it’s a pretty much constant reminder of why those people who give me support over the last four years, when we weren’t a band. I respected it the whole entire time and I still do. It’s a huge part of my life. It always will be. It’s given me so much. It’s always on my mind, because it’s that thing that you created when you were still naïve and pure in a sense that it went well and then it suffered after that, but it will always hold that special place in my mind. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by since we broke up that wasn’t like “Man, I wish I would’ve done it just a little bit differently” and to have that chance again, it’s just great, it’s a great feeling. It’s something that not everyone gets and I really do feel fortunate to be in the position where we are. I’m excited.

For you it must have been unique because you have been playing the songs live in some form since the breakup. What was picking them back up again with the rest of the band again like? Surreal?
Yeah. Definitely. I think practicing, like until we played that first show, practicing was a little bit awkward, it was like “Hey, we’re all friends. I guess we hang out a little bit.” We hadn’t really all hung out together since the band had split on hiatus. It was a little awkward; we only practiced a handful of times because of our schedules, but after that first show it was like “Okay wow, the feeling came right back.” The last show that we played last weekend, during the second reunion shows, we definitely had much more of our vibe and much more of our connection that we had on stage all back together. And that felt really good. It’s coming back, you know?

TEN once covered “The Power Of Love” by Huey Lewis And The News. If you did another cover, what would you want to do?
Man, if we were going to do another cover…I haven’t thought about this, but you know, it would probably be something really weird. I’m sure it would be some absolutely weird song that everybody would be like “Why are you covering that?” like Scatman or something. I mean obviously I don’t know what that song was really called, but something like that.

You wouldn’t be one of those bands that cover something that was on the radio this year?
[Laughs.] Not anything I can think of.

Fair enough!
But it would definitely be something odd.

I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business utilized Kickstarter to fund the Gold Rush pressing project. What's your take on Kickstarter and the way bands use it?
Well, yeah, I think it’s a great thing. I haven’t done too much since the research that I did when I originally used Kickstarter, so I’m not really sure of all the ways people use it, but I know that you do need to fund a record, you do need to fund a tour, you need to fund everything that goes into it. It’s not cheap. I think it’s great on that side of it. I do think it’s very useful as long as you’re genuine about what you’re trying to do and not just trying to make quick money, because on one hand it could be that, but as far as I know with it I think it’s fantastic. I think it’s a great way for fans and bands to come that much closer to bridge the space that’s there.

Judging from videos of last weekend’s shows, the impression is that the band and crowd haven't skipped a beat. Did anything about the experience of the most recent shows surprise you?
I think the energy, you know? Not that it surprised me, but just how psyched people were. That’s just like something that even back when we decided to go on hiatus we didn’t feel that, and maybe that was on our end, maybe that was the inner sort of turmoil and we weren’t picking it up. The vibe that people were giving us was just absolutely fantastic. Something you can’t even describe one of those cheesy feelings that’s just like “Wow, this is great!” and definitely the energy that they were giving us. It’s how loud everybody was singing every single word.

More importantly, it looked like you guys are genuinely having fun doing it. Is something as simple as that part of the motivation behind the reunion?
I definitely would say that. alt